Malaysian Minister: Adverse climate change caused flooding

The Star 25 Feb 11;

JOHOR BARU: The recent flooding in Johor and other parts of the country were due to world climate change and not because of poor management of the environment and the country’s forests.

Stating this, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas added that the adverse climate change did not only affect Malaysia but also Australia and other countries.

“Besides the flooding, we also had severe haze in some areas, such as in Muar last year,” he said, adding that it was important for countries to work together to address the issue globally.

He was speaking to reporters after attending a seminar on the environment at Pasir Gudang, near here, yesterday.

Uggah said it was important to reduce CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions globally as even a two-degree change in global temperature could be detrimental to the environment.

“Since the announcement last year by the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) that Malaysia will cut CO2 emissions, we have achieved 63% of the target set,” he said, adding that Malaysia was committed to reducing 38 million tonnes of CO2 emissions by 2020.

Meanwhile, Skudai assemblyman Dr Boo Cheng Hau claimed that he had voiced the issue of flood mitigation several times in the state assembly but “nothing was done to address the concerns raised.”

“It is due to mismanagement of the state’s forest reserves and water resources that we are experiencing flooding in many parts of the state,” he claimed.